When We Wane
Alyce McKnight
Disclaimer: All rights go back to the fabulous JK Rowling. My only intentions in writing this work are for personal fulfillment and entertainment purposes only.
Author's Note: Hello and welcome to my new story "When We Wan" (or WWW as I will now refer to it). I may or may not continue "Clearwater" as I have lost inspiration for now. However, with the lack to non-mate werewolf fics, I thought I'd try my hand at it. This fic is based on the theory that instead of taking the Dark Mark in his sixth year, Draco was bit by Greyback as punishment for his family's failure. I will go into this more in the fic, but if you are unfamiliar with the theory it's extremely easy to find with a quick Google search. Most of the canon of the original books will remain intact except for the epilogue and the fact that Draco is a werewolf.
This fic is rated M for future violent and possibly explicit scenes as well as language and some dirty jokes here and there. ;)
Before I get started, I'd like to thank my best friend and beta who refused to give me a super cool beta name other than "SuperCoolBetaName". Anyway, she's pretty awesome and a huge help in reviewing my chapters and making them look pretty!
Without much further ado, let's get on with it!
August 22nd, 2002
Moon Phase: Full (Day Two)
Hermione Granger flipped on the light in her office-the Muggle way-the way she liked it. Her best friend, Harry Potter, sat in her desk chair with his feet propped up in the center of her desk, resting on what were probably important papers documenting cases of house elf abuse.
"Harry! You really shouldn't do that! One of these days I'm going to hex you!"
"It wouldn't be the first time," Harry said, removing his leather shoes from her desk."So, how did that date of yours go last night?" His smirk nearly spread across his entire face.
"Oh, sod off! Can't a girl have a private life in this office?"
"Sure, but not when you went on a date with Oliver 'Head of the Official Gobstones Club' Masterson."
"What's wrong with that? Gobstones is a perfectly interesting and valid career choice." Hermione knew Harry would see through the words as soon as they came out of her mouth. To her disdain, she was right.
"Did he bring his stones with him?" Harry asked laughing. "Ooh, did he bring that one that is made from the Floo powder of the very first floo? He's really proud of that one."
Hermione sighed.
"Why'd you come in here? I know it wasn't to see how my date went with Oliver." What Harry didn't know is that Oliver had in fact brought his stones on the date, including his prized "First Floo" stone. The entire date consisted of dinner interspersed with the stories of the harrowing battles in which he won the stones. All of which Hermione found utterly and completely boring. She pretended to be somewhat interested, but couldn't bring herself to bother with her normal conversation. Since she and Ron broke up about a year after the Battle of Hogwarts, she'd been in a rut. People were only interested in her for the Daily Prophet articles the next day or to get close to Harry and Ron. Oliver, however, had seemed different. He seemed genuinely interested in her and he wasn't the type to go out of his way to impress a girl. Whenever she saw him at the Ministry, he was polite and carried intelligent conversation. Get him outside of the workplace, however, and all he could talk about was work. Upcoming tournaments, past tournaments, and all the stones he's ever won and lost. It was absolutely unbearable.
The Daily Prophet headline that morning had read, "Golden Girl and Gobstones Master? The Rarest Stone of All", She'd rolled her eyes when she'd read that part. The article was fairly simple, but towards the end, it mentioned the next tournament and all of Oliver's achievements and how she had been awed by them over dinner. It seemed a little too flattering to be coincidence.
"Hermione?"
"Oh, yes, sorry Harry, you were saying?"
"I need you to come to a meeting in fifteen minutes. The meeting room on the Auror floor across from my office. We have a case which involves both our departments."
Exactly fifteen minutes later, Hermione entered the meeting room carrying her notepad and a myriad of other materials she may need at some point in the meeting.
"Wonderful, we're all here," Harry said, standing across from her at the other end of the round table. He opened the file in front of him and carefully passed around the contents to the various people at the meeting, Hermione was the only one from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
"Over the past few months, werewolf attacks in this particular region of the Scottish Highlands have increased dramatically," Harry said, pointing to the Cairngorms mountains. "Particularly one village in the Cairngorms, Radcliffe." Everyone one in the room tensed, including Harry. "As you all know, Radcliffe is a village that was created after the war to house former Death Eaters and other dangerous persons whose crimes either were not serious enough for Azkaban or for those who are unfit to live with the rest of the world."
"So, why do we care?" one blond haired auror asked. "The werewolf's doing us a bloody service." Harry's face remained blank and emotionless at the auror's comment.
"Wizards being killed is notable regardless of previous affiliations," Harry said. Hermione smiled at him and his eyes lit up in recognition of her approval. "Not to mention, there are no records of any registered werewolves in Radcliffe. Can you confirm that Hermione?"
Hermione nodded.
"Yes, no werewolves were placed in Radcliffe over fears of rampant attacks or the creation of more wolves. A pack forming in such a secluded place would become extremely dangerous to not only surrounding villages, but to the pack itself. If this is only one wolf, it may be able to keep itself contained, but it depends on specific traits of the wolf. It is most likely unregistered as I'm not aware of any wolves in the area."
Hermione had mixed thoughts about the Werewolf Registry. There was definitely a need to know where werewolves were and who they were because they became uncontrollable for a couple nights a month. However, she remembered the Mudblood Registry and how it felt to be labeled as different and dangerous.
"This poses a large security risk. The unregistered wolf has either always been confined within Radcliffe and something triggered it to begin attacking, or the wolf is a highly skilled wizard who has gotten passed the wards. Either way, it is extremely important that we handle this with extreme discretion which is why I have nominated the two best from the respective departments to handle this. Hermione, Blaise, I want you to go to Radcliffe and get to the bottom of this. If this is truly an unregistered wolf, we will most likely need to relocate it. However, this may have more sinister motives, which will need to be dealt with accordingly. The rest of you, I need you to set up portkeys and get everything ready for a field mission. Dismissed."
Harry motioned Hermione and Blaise into his office after the meeting. Her head was in a whirlwind at Harry's assumption that she could drop everything for field mission that aurors should handle. However, at the very least, she was happy that the field mission would be with Blaise. She'd never really known her former classmate very well, but due to his closeness with Harry, she had learned that Blaise was actually very intelligent and witty, two traits she admired.
"I'm sorry to spring this on you, 'Mione," he said, "But, you are the only one from the department fit enough for this."
"Harry, you're sending me into a village full of former Death Eaters!" she exclaimed. "This is just an unregistered wolf, I don't see why you need to send me."
"Hermione, one of the victims was Narcissa Malfoy," he said. "She was killed last night. She saved my life at the battle, I think I owe it to her to use my best resources to find out who killed her. Blaise is one of our best aurors and recognizable to most of the Death Eaters, he will be able to go into the village without risk of being attacked. You probably won't come into contact with any former Death Eaters, well, except one."
"Oh, no, Blaise was neutral during the war, don't you remember that Harry? His family sent him to France right before the battle."
Harry and Blaise sat silently and exchanged glanced between the two of them.
"Shall I restrain her?" Blaise asked, "Not like I haven't before."
Hermione's eyes stared sharply at the Slytherin. Harry didn't know about the night after one of Ginny's quidditch matches. It was just after her breakup with Ron. She was lonely, but she hardly regretted it. Blaise had been a complete gentlemen afterward, he knew why it happened and simply left it at that, not pursuing her further. However, if she remembered correctly, she was the one restraining him.
"I don't mean Blaise," Harry said, Blaise's comment, however, she could see Harry's wand hand resting gently on his wand. "Because this is such a sensitive area with respect to Muggleborns, I have to place you slightly outside Radcliffe. Draco Malfoy owns a house just outside the village that he used when visiting his parents, however, due to his mother's death, he is now residing there permanently."
"You want me to live with Draco Malfoy?!" Hermione asked, or rather yelled, standing up out of her seat. "He tried to kill us, he tried to kill you!"
"Hermione, we were young. He wasn't convicted of any wrongdoing and he's changed. He's just lost his mother, I'm sure he will place that above any prejudices he still carries. Plus, Blaise will be there. You two are still fairly close, right?"
Blaise nodded. "Yes," he said. "Draco has changed drastically since Hogwarts. But if he is ever hostile towards you, I can easily put a stop to it, as I'm sure you could."
Hermione sat back down defeated. She couldn't believe what her life had come to; field missions and living in a safe house with Draco Malfoy.
"You know I wouldn't place you somewhere I thought you would be in danger. Draco is one of the few outsiders with access to Radcliffe, as you two will soon be, the security personnel will be altering the wards tonight. He may be imperative to your mission." Harry handed them each a small velvet bag which had For Emergencies stitched on them. "Inside is a galleon, these work just like your DA coins, Hermione. They will start to burn if one of you is in trouble alerting the other you need help. However, it will only alert the other if you set it off, just by touching the tip of your wand to any part of the coin. If you encounter a larger emergency, portkeys are being made. One will take you to St. Mungos and the other will bring you to a private room in the Ministry. The portkeys are only to be used in absolutely dire circumstances."
Hermione hadn't noticed, but she had begun taking notes as Harry was talking, scribbling furiously in her notebook.
"You will leave first thing in the morning. I suggest going home and preparing now. The last night of the full moon is tomorrow, if you are lucky, this may be a short mission."
Hermione hoped for the sake of her future sanity that they discovered the werewolf the next night. If she had to wait another month, she might just throw herself to the wolf.
There it is! I really hope you enjoyed! Now, I'm going to start a tradition. My beta is extremely funny and witty and in the process of writing this chapter she gave me some wonderful feedback. Her comments were too funny not to share, so, at the end of every chapter I'm going to feature a witty comment from my beta on that chapter. Feel free to ask her questions or respond! I'll pass them on to her. Thanks for reading!
Beta Comment: #JusticeforOliver